FLEMING ISLAND – The school district’s reopening plan was approved by the state just two weeks ahead of the start of the new school year.

The school board and district has been working for months to get schools, students and faculty prepared for the 2020-21 school year. It comes with its own unique set of problems and solutions as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the hard work has paid off as the state has given the district the greenlight ahead of the Aug. 25 start date for students. Teachers returned last Monday.

“We have met all assurances that are needed to get State approval,” Superintendent David Broskie said during Thursday’s, the Aug. 6, meeting.

The plan includes social distancing measures and masks for grades 3-12. It also includes a hybrid mix of educational plans to ensure students and their families get to choose an option that feels most safe for them. Some students will be returning back to their respective school campus, some will learn through Clay Virtual Academy and some will work online as part of OneClayOnline.

Broskie said 825 elementary, 511 junior high and 747 high school students are enrolled in CVA with another 300-plus students hoping to enroll but they still need to complete their registration. He said 4,080 elementary, 982 junior high and 1,464 high school students are enrolled in OneClay Online learning. That’s a total of 2,083 and 6,538, respectively.

There is a 281-student increase in homeschooling as it has risen from 1,415 last year to 1,696 this year. All of this amounts to 8,621 students enrolled in online education, which is 22% of the district’s total enrollment.

“That’s like opening nine new elementary schools,” Broskie said in regard to shifting the district to accommodate thousands of new online learners. “In that regard, it will require movement of teachers and teacher allegations. I want to give a vision of how big this project is so that everyone can see that this is a major event in Clay County school history.”

The district recently found success with existing classrooms with its Summer Restart Summer Recovery program from July 7-30. Students took buses, learned in classrooms, ate lunch at schools and took buses home, but no COVID-19 cases were reported.

Keeping with numbers during the meeting, Clay County Department of Health administrator walked the school board through pediatric case numbers for the county. There have been 61 cases in the elementary age range, 42 cases for junior high and 165 for high school. This is a total of 258 cases.

“We’ve not had any outbreaks in summer camps, any outbreaks in any kind of sports or youths,” Heather Huffman said. “We had a few daycare outbreaks but those were like three cases in a daycare of 50 to 85 kids.”

Huffman said that’s an outbreak for DOH classification but not what most people would call an outbreak in the vernacular. She followed up and explained what an exposure would consist of ahead of the new school year.

“Within six feet, 15 minutes or longer,” Huffman said. “If I walk up to you and say something and then walk away, that’s not considered exposure. It is not airborne. It is not airborne. It is not airborne. It is from droplets. It is from me talking. It is from me breathing.

“The more I yell or sing or talk, the more droplets come out. They go as far as you’re exerting, then [the droplets] drop down. This is a human-to-human direct person contact with droplets...and that’s what we have to combat.”